Courtesy of Grand Canyon Athletics

LINCOLN, Neb. – It took the No. 1 team in the nation playing in its sold-out home stadium to end Grand Canyon’s greatest softball season. And even then, GCU was not an easy out with sophomore left-hander Oakley Vickers spinning another pitching gem Sunday.

Top-ranked Nebraska (49-6) extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 24 games, but the Lopes played the Huskers closer than any opponent did during the run. With Vickers delivering her second outstanding outing of the NCAA Lincoln Regional, GCU (54-10) gave a scarlet scare before exiting Bowlin Stadium with a 1-0, season-ending loss in Sunday’s regional final on ESPN.

The Lopes were capping the program’s winningest season with their second regional final visit in three years, but the Huskers’ dominant pitching produced the first two shutouts that GCU has suffered this season –  a 2-0 win Saturday and a 1-0 win Sunday.

If it was not clear that Lopes have closed the gap on the nation’s giants, the seventh-inning separation from tying No. 1 Nebraska was 120 feet with another 60 feet separating them from leading the Huskers in a stadium where they had lost once this season. Sunday’s Huskers win was its first decided by one run during the 24-game streak, coming a day after their 2-0 win vs. GCU matched the streak’s previous tightest victory.

Vickers was up to the challenge Sunday, hurling 5 1/3 innings wtih Nebraska only getting five hits, one of which was a first-inning solo home run by senior Hannah Camenzind. In her last four postseason outings, Vickers posted a 0.66 ERA over 21 1/3 innings, allowing only 16 hits while striking out 19.

In getting one-hit by Nebraska for the second time in two days, GCU only put a runner in scoring position three times Sunday. The Lopes’ lone hit off Huskers freshman starter Alexis Jensen came from freshman second baseman Raegan Holtorf, who singled to left field with one out in the first. She moved to second on a wild pitch with two outs, but graduate left fielder Trinity Martin stepped out of the box on a two-strike foul swing and was ruled out.

GCU sophomore third baseman Ellie Pond drew a leadoff walk in the third inning and a Nebraska error put runners on first and second wtih no outs, but Jensen escaped with a fly out, grounder and one of the 12 strikesouts that she and ace reliever Jordy Frahm recorded Sunday.

Lopes senior right-hander Taryn Batterton relieved Vickers in the bottom of the sixth, drawing a double-play liner to sophomore first baseman Jada Cooper to set up GCU’s last chance in the seventh.

GCU freshman right fielder Addison Shifflett was hit by a pitch wtih one out, but was forced out on second when junior catcher Tinley Lucas hit a would-be bloop single to short center field. Pond was also hit by a pitch, although it required a video review for the call to be made. With two on and two outs, the Lopes looked for more pinch-hit magic from junior Alina Satcher, but she struck out against the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year.